Marblehead's Mr. Baseball heads for home

Thursday

The sign in the window of 139 Pleasant St. has read “Coin Specialist” for more than a dozen year, but what it should read is “keeper of dreams.”

Vance Likens has reigned over the collection of sports memorabilia, personal history and coins that crowd the tiny space next door to The Three Cod restaurant for just over three decades, but last month, he closed the doors.

“It’s time,” he said simply.

Likens is living proof of the old adage, “find a job you enjoy doing and you will never work a day in your life (Mark Twain).”

“It’s like being retired your whole life,” he said describing his career.

Likens, or Mr. Baseball as some call him, has spent 37 years surrounded by the things he loves: baseball cards and memorabilia, coins, coaching, kids and conversation. His store, even when it was half empty and packed away, was a treasure trove of sports history and surprises. Every surface was covered with pages of old baseball statistics, a Buffalo Braves mug, a small bust of a New York Yankee’s batter, signed baseballs. A banner on one wall showed the history of Boston baseball from the Braves to the Red Sox in pins and buttons. The front door was covered with photographs of Marblehead teams dating back to the 40s. His desk was planted in the middle of the room and ringed by now mostly empty cases.

The Coin Specialist

Likens started out dealing in just coins. He and a partner owned New England Numismatists over the Village Plaza. In 1980, he sold his shares and hit the road. While he was working as a traveling coin dealer, Likens said he saw an announcement that a big sports collector was selling his collections. He sent for the catalogue, filled out the paperwork and waited … and waited.

“I didn’t hear anything,” he said. “Now it’s August 1980 and I hear from him, he asked if I was still interested. I said ‘yeah’ and sent him the money and he sent me the collection.”

The collection contained much more than was in the catalogue, Likens said and it spilled all over the family dining room, so he moved into his first shop next door to Hartley’s Clothes in Five Corners, where he stayed for almost five year. In 1988, he moved to Pleasant Street.

When he settled at 139, Likens bought the building, a wise move that saw him through some tough times.

“When good times came, they were good and when bad times came, they were still good because I still had the building,” he said.

Likens said sports memorabilia and coin dealing are both tricky businesses. Some years, he hardly sold a thing and others, he couldn’t keep anything in the store.

The Business of Dreams

Matt Martin, Likens son-in-law, said he was like so many kids that passed through the store over the years.

“It was a rite of passage for any 10, 11, 12 year old,” he said. “The thing to do in the summer was to get on your bike, ride to Tony’s or somewhere for a slice, come here and get cards then go to someone’s house to go through the cards.”

Martin said he was in the shop with Likens recently when a boy about 10 came through the door with a fistful of dollars looking to buy some cards. Likens had to tell him the cards were gone and the shop was closing.

“The kid looked like someone shot his dog,” Martin said.

Likens said he watched a lot of kids and adults come through over the years and he saw a lot of trends in the business.

In the 80’s, everyone wanted rookie cards, he said. The 90s were a bad time for anything.

“We had a little depression so people weren’t spending money,” he said. “You could still buy from people, but the re-selling was tough.”

Likens said business picked back up in 2000 when manufacturer started putting things in with the cards.

“Like a piece of a shirt or piece of bench,” he said. “A company might buy a bat then laser cut it into tiny pieces and put a piece into packs of cards.”

Likens said people were coming in and buying up whole boxes of cards, not because they wanted the sets, they wanted to see what pieces of history they might get.

“It was really legalized gambling,” he joked. “Pay $2.50 of $4.25 and see if you could hit three bars.”

His collection

But Likens didn’t just deal in cellophane wrapped packs of cards, he also dealt in collectibles. Among the things Likens is keeping for himself is a 1953 Topps Pee Wee Reese card and a 1910 Piedmont Cigarette original, of Ty Cobb, “bat off the shoulder.

Another gem Likens proudly shows off is an old, threadbare baseball shirt that says “The Headers” across the chest, but has a secret inside. Likens points to a tag with a hand-written name, that is a bit hard to decipher but looks like a lot like “Pellagrini” as in Edward Charles Pellagrini who played for the Red Sox in 1941.

Likens said back in the day “The Headers” had a connection with the equipment manager for the Red Sox and old Sox jerseys discarded after major and minor league use, ended up in The Header’s line up. Likens pointed to a 1952 photograph of The Headers and all were wearing old Red Sox shirts that had been renamed. The one he saved bears the number nine on the back.

“I’m just saying it could have been,” he said with a small smile.

He was referring to the great Ted Williams, who wore number nine for the Red Sox.

He also has a host of buttons, banners and coins that he will hang onto.

“I’ll always be a collector,” he said.

Martin said he couldn’t blame his father-in-law for wanting to retire.

“But it’s sad to see it go,” he said. “It’s been a staple in the town of Marblehead for as long as I know … it brings back all the memories of bikes on the grass and being a kid.”